In the continuous casting of steel, many problems, such as surface cracks in solidified steel and breakouts of molten steel from the bottom of moulds, frequently occur in practice. It is believed that the occurrence of these problems is directly related to the events in the mould, especially the transfer of heat from the strand surface across the lubricating mould powder and its interface with the mould wall to the mould cooling-water. However, as far as the authors are aware, there is no published work dealing with heat transfer across both the lubricating layer and the interface. Generally, a parameter representing the average overall heat transfer coefficient between the strand surface and the mould cooling-water is employed, instead of including the lubricating layer, the mould wall and their interface in the computation region. The existing treatment consequently does not permit analysis of some of the more important phenomena, such as the effect of mould powder properties and interface thermal contact resistance on the solidification of steel. In this paper, a novel finite element model is developed and the heat transfer across the interface between the lubricating layer and the mould wall is simulated by introducing a new type of element, referred to as the thermal contact element. The proposed model is used to investigate the effect of various casting parameters on heat transfer from the molten steel to the cooling-water. The results indicate that the thermal contact resistance between the mould wall and the mould powder is a key factor which dominates the thickness of the solidified steel shell and the heat extraction rate from the mould wall.

The parameters describing the trapping kinetics of a linear model for diffusion, in solids involving a captured immobile phase of the diffusing entity, can be determined by measuring mean residence times for matter in the systems and evaluating the exponents for the final exponential decay rates of the diffusing entity from various shaped solids. The mean residence time for matter in a given region can be expressed in terms of a “torsion parameter” S which in the case of Dirichlet boundary conditions and cylindrical geometries, coincides with the torsional rigidity of the cylinder. The final decay rate is given by the first eigenvalue μ of a Helmholtz problem. Expressions and inequalities are derived for these parameters S and μ for general linear boundary conditions and for geometries relevant to diffusion experiments.

In this paper various two-dimensional motions are determined for waves in a stratified region of infinite total depth with a free surface containing two superposed liquids, allowing for the effects of surface and interfacial tension. The fundamental set of wave-source potentials for the two layers is used to construct the set of slope potentials that produce discontinuous free-surface and interface slopes. The latter potentials are then utilized to obtain the potentials for waves due to both heaving vertical plates and incident progressive waves against a vertical wall. The underlying assumption of small time-harmonic motion pertains, described by a pair of velocity potentials for the two layers satisfying coupled linearized boundary-value problems, and all solutions are obtained in terms of their matching basic solutions. The technique for applying Green's theorem in the two layers is developed for use with the wave-source potentials, which themselves are found to obey a generalised reciprocity principle. Familiar results for a single liquid of infinite depth are hereby extended, but the new feature emerges of there being two types of progressive waves in all solutions. For ease of presentation the solutions are obtained for a particular relationship between surface and interfacial tension.

Coupled nonlinear partial differential equations, which describe a nonlinear resonant interaction between the fundamental and its first harmonic on a magnetohydro-dynamic jet, are derived by the derivative expansion method. We investigate the spatial behaviour of the amplitude and phases. It is shown that the fluid surface is unstable in the neighbourhood of the first resonant wavenumber. In the steady state, it is observed that the general motion consists of both amplitude and phase modulated waves.

A sphere theorem for non-axisymmetric Stokes flow of a viscous fluid of viscosity μe past a fluid sphere of viscosity μi is stated and proved. The existing sphere theorems in Stokes flow follow as special cases from the present theorem. It is observed that the expression for drag on the fluid sphere is a linear combination of rigid and shear-free drags.

A fourth-order nonlinear evolution equation is derived for a wave propagating at the interface of two superposed fluids of infinite depths in the presence of a basic current shear. On the basis of this equation a stability analysis is made for a uniform wave train. Discussions are given for both an air-water interface and a Boussinesq approximation. Significant deviations are noticed from the results obtained from the third-order evolution equation, which is the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. In the Boussinesq approximation, it has been possible to compare the present results with the exact numerical analysis of Pullin and Grimshaw [12], and they are found to agree rather favourably.

We consider here pulsatile flow in circular tubes of varying cross-section with permeable walls. The fluid exchange across the wall is accounted for by prescribing the normal velocity of the fluid at the wall. A perturbation analysis has been carried out for low Reynolds number flows and for small amplitudes of oscillation. It has been observed that the magnitude of the wall shear stress and the pressure drop decrease as the suction velocity increases. Further, as the Reynolds number is increased, the magnitude of wall shear stress increases in the convergent portion and decreases in the divergent portion of a constricted tube.

An approximate solution is determined for the problem of scattering of water waves by a nearly vertical plate, by reducing it to two mixed boundary-value problems (BVP) for Laplace's equation, using perturbation techniques. While the solution of one of these BVP is well-known, the other BVPs is reduced to the problem of solving two uncoupled problems, and the complete solution of the problem under consideration up to first-order accuracy is derived with a special assumption on the shape of the plate and a related approximation. Known results involving the reflection and transmission coefficients are reproduced.

We wish to correct a minor error in the recent paper [2]. That paper was concerned with an integral equation defined on a closed polygon Γ with r corners at the points x0, x2, …, x2r = x0. We parameterized Γ using a mapping γ:[−π,π] → Γ defined as follows. For each l, introduce the mid-point x2l−1 of the side joining x2l—2 to x2l. Then introduce 2r + 1 points in parameter space

with the property that for each j = 1, …, 2r

where mj are integers and . Then γ(s) is defined by

for j = 1, …, 2r. The {Sj} are then the preimages of the {xj} under γ. Moreover, in view of (1), a family of uniform meshes can be constructed on [−π, π] which include {Sj} as the break-points. Then γ maps these to meshes which are uniform on each segment joining xj−1 to xj (which we denote Γj). These meshes are used to discretize the integral equation.